In the early sociology of religion the relationship between social class and religion was a central topic. Weber for example analysed social strata as carriers of religious ideas. Following Weber this research question was picked up by Niebuhr in his exploration of the social sources of denominations and by Bourdieu in his analysis of the religious field. In the last decades, the problem of social inequality has been mostly neglected as a research question in the sociology of religion.

Papers presenting empirical findings, quantitative as well as qualitative, from a national or transnational perspective, about theimpact of social class and life conditions on religious beliefs, practices and affiliations are invited. The religions of the upperclasses and the lower classes, of the privileged and the “negatively privileged” are of special interest for this panel.